Chapter Five
September 14, Year One
Bristol, UK
Alice's ears were still ringing from the Bruno Mars remix when they spilled out of Popworld and wandered further down O'Donnell Street along the river. It used to be that half the transatlantic slave trade docked at these banks – now, it was full of pleasure yachts and tourist ferries and nightclubs and signs begging people like them not to go swimming. Popworld still thumped with noise, but Daisy was crying over her cheating boyfriend again – always happened at the fifth drink – and they needed to keep moving. A group of lads were stood dangerously close to the water's edge, flinging empty cans into the river, and two blatantly lost Chinese students were taking selfies in front of a preserved wooden galleon.
"So, where to now?" Alice asked.
"Think I'm gonna call it, to be honest," said Ruby.
"Are you kidding?" Alice snapped. "It's not even midnight yet and it's Friday!"
"Yeah, and I work on Saturday," Ruby replied. "It gets fuckin' hot in Primark with all them bodies. Can't be hungover and tired in those conditions. Talk about a sweatshop."
"Fine, leave, just like everyone else!" Tom shouted, trying to be funny, and Paul laughed with him. They'd hit it off pretty well over their shared passion for how terrible Marvel was. That was nice.
"Look, if you wanna go, then go, but I reckon Geckos is the place to go next," said Alice. "They've got a bubble machine."
"Well…" Ruby considered. "I'm finding it hard to say no to a bubble machine."
"Course you fuckin' are," cried Alice, delighted, grabbing her arm to walk with. My, the world felt very spinny right about now.
"Don't they do tequila shots there?" asked Paul.
"Tequila mockingbird," mumbled Rachel to nobody in particular.
"What, in Gecko?" replied Alice. "Yeah, like two hundred flavours or something stupid."
"Not two hundred," laughed Tom. "Maybe, like, fifty."
"And I'm trying 'em all!" Alice sniggered.
"With all that money you've got, right?"
"Broke is a state of mind."
"If you say so, Al'."
They kept walking along the quayside, Paul having to grab Alice's wrist once or twice to keep her from getting too close to the water's edge, two police officers humouring them by allowing a group selfie, as they found themselves walking together for the first time since leaving Popworld.
"Bet you didn't expect your night to go this way, did you?" asked Alice.
"Not really, no," laughed Paul. "Literally just left my flat to go watch the football then kinda shot my shot and now here I am."
"Shot your shot, ey?" She regarded him – these bits were always some of her favourites. "What would you be doing if you hadn't?"
"Wanking into a flannel, probably." Alice cackled – she probably wouldn't have, normally, but she could tell how risky Paul had felt making that joke and she appreciated it. She was also very drunk.
"I swear I'm not normally like this."
"What, drunk?"
"Well, yeah, but also just being this happy-go-lucky." That was a stone cold lie, now, wasn't it?
"I'm sure you're not – but it's cool if you are."
"What do you do, anyway? Like, for work?"
"I'm in the Army."
"Oh, shit, really?" Alice looked at him with genuine interest.
"Really really."
"Have you been anywhere interesting?"
"Never in combat, if that's what you mean." It was. "Couple of friends were in Afghanistan but closest I've gotten is a couple deployments in Poland."
"Ah!" cried Alice. "Protecting NATO from the Russian bear!"
"Hey, a geopolitics expert!" Paul laughed, and Alice laughed too. She could hear the booming bass of Gecko now; just round the corner, and there would be its neon-green lights. The ones that everyone in the flats facing it across the river regularly complained about. "It's really no big deal. Mostly ends up just being a big piss-up."
"Well, isn't that why most people join the…" Uh-oh. Queasiness had suddenly materialised in Alice's stomach. She stopped in her tracks – Paul kept going a few paces, having been watching a pair of bickering homeless men, before realising she was no longer with him and turning back round.
"Hey, everything okay?" he asked, approaching her cautiously, as she tried to mentally talk down the bile building unpleasantly in the back of her throat. "You're not gonna chunder, are you?"
"Nope," Alice said quickly. "Deffo not. But if I tell you to look away, promise you will."
"I promise I will. Do you wanna go home? I can find you a taxi."
"No, no, no," Alice insisted, walking again, pushing the feeling down, trying to ignore the beads of sweat on her forehead, "I'm good. Another drink and I'll come back to life."
"You absolutely sure tequila's the way forward right now?" asked Paul, following quickly, watching her with concern. She liked that – in fact, she might have liked that more than any other time he'd looked at her. It revealed something honest about him – the best men were the type who'd hold your hair while you vomited and then ordered you some fried chicken. He was giving off those vibes, right now.
"Well… maybe Heineken, to start off with," said Alice, weakly.
"Or, failing that, a Sprite."
"Ah, you speak my language," Alice sighed, and they rounded the corner – there, now, was Gecko, a long line of students snaking out of the door, two huge bouncers at the front, checking IDs and not really looking at them and not even looking at them at all depending on the customer's breast size. Or, at least, that was how Alice – who'd looked into enhancements since she was thirteen – imagined things were playing out. From inside, she could already hear some thumping rap song she didn't really recognise, but it was all the same four chords at the end of the day.
They joined Alice's friends in the queue – having to argue, briefly, with the people behind them to do so.
"Hey, Paul was in the Army, you know," Alice announced.
"Still am," he corrected. "I'm on leave for a while, now."
"That's pretty sick," said Daisy – her eyes were scanning every man who came near her. Tonight was a night for revenge, Alice supposed.
"Kill a lot of black babies?" Rachel joked – she was too drunk to nail the tone, so it just came off as aggressive.
"In Poland?" asked Paul, as the queue inched forward.
"Ignore her," Alice announced. "Pay attention to me instead."
"Oh, uh, okay!" Paul replied, jovial as he could, surprised by this interesting vibe. Alice began to realise she was very close to him.
"So…" she said. "When did you decide to become ginger?"
"Uh…" He smiled – in an instant, Alice realised that he wasn't going home with her tonight. He'd clocked that she was simply too drunk. She liked him even more, now. "It was more of a genetic thing, rea…" His face fell. "Are you alright?" he asked, suddenly.
"What? What's wrong." Alice stared at him – and, suddenly, saw dark blood trickle from his nose and drip off his top lip.
"Mate," said Daisy, alarmed, "you know you've got a nosebleed?" Paul put a hand to his nose and took it away, staring at the blood, then glancing back at Alice.
"So do you." As he said it, Alice felt the iron tang fill her mouth, and both hands went to her nose at once. Bringing one away, the other pinching the bridge, she saw it coated in scarlet. Over Paul's shoulder, two girls in tight, short black dresses were further down the queue, and one of them was being attended to by the other. She was pinching her nose with both hands.
"What the fuck…?" Alice mumbled. Someone left the queue further down, clutching their nose, and though the queue's more distant confines were rather blurry right now, she was sure she saw more. Meanwhile, in the East African sky, over cities like Nairobi, Mombasa, Malindi, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Burgabo, where the nosebleeds were happening too, shapes were appearing in the sky.
Please comment. Go on – how many other Halo fanfictions contain the words "Bruno Mars remix?"
